by Udit Misra January 14, 2011 FORBES INDIA
The unique identity (UID) numbers being issued with much fanfare have no legal
sanctity. This may surprise many who casually know about the UID scheme and believe it represents a progressive and transparent new India. The problem is, the Bill which pro-
poses setting up an Authority mandated to issue such numbers was introduced in Parliament only in December 2010. This is yet to even face the routine Standing Committee scrutiny.
In the last three months, there has been opposition to the UID scheme.
Leading the resistance are eminent academics and social activists, Jean
Dreze and Aruna Roy. Both are members of the National Advisory Council
headed by Sonia Gandhi.
What's the Fuss About?
One of the main criticisms is the "unwarranted" hurry with which it has
been put in motion. "I don't know how it has been established that UID is inevitable. Where
was the debate regarding this?" asks Gopal Krishna, member of the Citizens
Forum of Civil Liberties.
He points out that there has been no feasibility report or cost benefit analysis of the project in the public domain. Krishna's main concern is the invasion of an individual's privacy.
"The UID scheme will soon prove to be the key that leads to unifying many different databases and give the government agencies overwhelming powers of surveillance," he says. Krishna asserts that the UID number will in time become the single common factor
between various databases of a single person, allowing someone with mali-
cious intent to compile a unified list. The assertion that UID is "voluntary" is misleading, since in time it will become necessary to have a UID number if one wants to avail any service. Observers fear that such easy ac-cess with the government could lead to dangerous consequences. "In a situation like the Gujarat riots, profiling, and targeting a minority community
could become extremely easy," claims A.P. Shah, former chief justice of Ma-
dras and Delhi High Courts.There are not enough laws that protect personal data from being abused. People are questioning whether biometric technology is foolproof. In fact,
even the Biometric Standards Committee of UIDAI looked unsure of it in
the final analysis, stating: "First, retaining efficacy while scaling the database
size from fifty million to a billion has not been adequately analysed. Second,
fingerprint quality, the most important variable for determining de-duplica-
tion accuracy, has not been studied in depth in the Indian context."
Others like Reetika Khera from the Centre for Development Economics,
say that the government is misleading the people into believing that UID will
provide solutions to the distortions in the National Rural Employment Guar-
antee Act (NREGA) Scheme and the Public Distribution System.
"The UIDAI's [Unique Identification Authority of India's] claims are
bloated. There are almost no benefits of having a UID number in the func-
tioning of NREGA and marginal benefits [like stamping out bogus ration
cards] in PDS," she says. The loopholes in these can be plugged by widespread
computerisation and efficient monitoring, like exhibited in Tamil Nadu and
Chhattisgarh. Yet, the government has chosen to focus on weeding out bogus
cards by ensuring deduplication. According to Khera, UID seems to
be a way to allow direct cash transfers a backdoor entry, again without debate.
Actually, providing direct subsidy to the needy has been debated for over a
decade now, but it has failed to take off due to lack of political support.
The Flip side
The UIDAI did not respond to a detailed questionnaire, yet in a brief chat
earlier, R.S. Sharma, mission director, explained that UIDAI has a specific
mandate given to it by the union cabinet, to set up a system for the unique
identification and authentication of each person residing in the country.
Responding to apprehensions raised by activists, Sharma said: "Technology
like UID is an enabler. However, what the government chooses to do with it
in the future is really up to the government." He refuted that UID is not
useful in schemes like NREGA: "UID would bring banking closer to the rural population engaged in NREGA. It would allow designated business correspondents like a kirana store to func-
tion like a bank, thus obviating the need for people to cover long distances
to withdraw cash from their bank accounts and lose a day's salary in the
bargain too."
Our take
It is instructive to look at developments in the UK and the US. Both tried to put
in place a similar system. Last month, the UK repealed the Identity Card Act
of 2006 which provided for identity cards linked to a National Identity Reg-
ister. The Real ID Act of 2005 in the US failed to take off — most states refused
to go along with it since it violated privacy. The Act proposed to use driver's
license-based ID cards to be monitored through computers.
In sum, it would be prudent if the government would focus on having
a frank debate on the implications of UID and the changes required in the
data protection regime to safeguard privacy and ensure smooth adoption
of the scheme.
No parliamentary approval yet, therefore no legal backing
Little debate so far and being rolled out without feasibility studies
UID expected to help move from subsidy to a direct cash transfers mechanism,
without enough debate
A unified database with information on health, income and education will allow agencies to
carry out surveillance of citizens.
This allows profiling and amounts to invasion of privacy UID enabled data could
be leaked to private businesses who could use it against the citizens
The biometric verification technology used for identification is not considered foolproof
Being incorrectly promoted as beneficial to the poor. The actual benefits to NREGA and PDS are limited
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